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Central Standard

Cash Money Crew: Sandwich Generation

Vinoth Chandar
/
Flickr -- Creative Commons

The Sandwich Generation--it’s made up of people who are generally between the ages of 45 and 65. On one side of the sandwich is that college grad who came back home to live. On the other side are one’s aging parents.  The strains are not just in time and energy, but are most acutely financial.  Alex Petrovic, of PetrovicFinancial Services; Sandi Weaver, of Financial SecurityAdvisors  and Corey Rasmussen of the Rasmussen Law Firm discuss the financial and legal issues that surround the care of an aging parent.

A month ago we focused on adult children moving back home, now we take a look at three generations under one roof. When caring for an elderly parent, there are many things to consider in terms of finances and legality, including working with the whole family to develop a plan. According to Rasmussen, who specializes in elderly law, working with parents when they are still healthy to figure out who will have power of attorney to make both health and financial decisions prevents potential lawsuits among family members after a parent dies. 

Protecting assets is another aspect of estate planning the Cash Money Crew suggests to keep in mind. Rather then putting a child's name on bank accounts and other financial entities, make them a signatory so you know for a fact how your money will be spent after you die.

Completing the financial planning in preparation for a parent's death is stressful enough, but the emotional toll is takes on a caregiver has serious consequences. 66 percent of caregivers are women and 30% of caregivers end up doing it for more than 40 years. This leads to financial strain for the family and oftentimes divorce for the couple taking care of a parent. Another consequence that comes with the stress of caring for an elderly parent is focusing on your own life, because less than 50 percent of caregivers are able to retain their jobs. 

Additional Resources:

eldercare.com
caregiver.org LeadingAge.org
caregiving.org

http://www.womansday.com/sex-relationships/family/caregiver-elderly-parents
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolynrosenblatt/2013/05/09/is-caring-for-aging-parents-unfair-to-women/

Matthew Long-Middleton has been a talk-show producer, community producer, Media Training Manager and now the Community Engagement Manager at KCUR. You can reach him at Matthew@kcur.org, or on Twitter @MLMIndustries.